Hamilton. — On the Feathers of a Small Moa. 235 



&c, of existing species of New Zealand plants, and has 

 described it as a moa-feather.* 



The feathers still remained on the metatarsi of a specimen 

 of Mesopteryx didinus described by Professor Owen,f and are 

 of a grey colour at the base, deepening into reddish-brown at 

 the top. The legs being feathered so far down must have 

 given a curious appearance to this species. The specimen 

 described came from a cave on the Queenstown side of the 

 Old Man Eange. 



These feathers are not double-shafted. 



A paper on moa-feathers by Dr. Hector was taken as 

 read at the February meeting of the Wellington Philosophical 

 Society in 1880, but I do not think it has ever been published. 



In 1876 Dr. Hector found on some very ancient Maori 

 weapons in the British Museum what he' considered to be 

 undoubted moa-feathers. 



The matter is fully discussed in Owen's work, p. 449, et seq. 

 Professor Owen, however, thinks the feathers were those of a 

 large kiwi. It is unfortunate that any doubt should exist, but 

 the specimens in question were lost, aud consequently cannot 

 be further examined. 



The only instance in which moa-feathers have been found 

 applied to any purpose by human agency is the case I 

 recorded last year] of the strip of skin with feathers sewn on 

 to the skin-mat found wrapped around a skeleton in a cave in 

 Upper Taieri. These feathers belong to Dr. Hocken, and I 

 have brought them down to-night to show them in connection 

 with those more recently discovered. 



At the time 1 noticed them they did not correspond 

 exactly with any known examples. Now," however, I have 

 several amongst the present find which exactly correspond, and 

 confirm the original identification. Fortunately, in this case, 

 the feathers can be assigned to an individual moa of a small 

 species, which has hitherto been known as Megalapteryx. 



I have now to offer for your inspection a number of 

 feathers of this small moa found by myself in a cave in 

 one of the gorges of the Waikaia. This river and its head- 

 waters pour down from the rugged schistose range called 

 the Old Man Eange. During the winter the upper parts 

 of the river, and the White Comb district in particular, are 

 practically inaccessible, and the few gold diggers in the creeks 

 and river-beds are cut off from the outer world by the snow- 

 drifts. I visited the district at Christmas time, and, leaving my 

 horse at an accommodation-house known as Vernon's, walked 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst , vol. xxi., pp. 318-20. 



t Zool. Soc. Trans., vol. xi., pt. 8, No. 4, p. 257, plates 59-61, 1883. 



I Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxv., p. 488. 



